Ukraine left the joint venture on nuclear fuel production

The government's stake of joint company was auctioned off at a price 52 times higher than the starting

State Property Fund of Ukraine have sold their share (33,33%) in the «Ukraine-Kazakhstan-Russia Private Joint Stock Company on nuclear fuelproduction». Russian news agency TASS reports, that «JV UKRTVS» (co-owner of a joint venture) was auctioning off for 47.8 million hryvnias (about $1.88 million). It is 51,9 times higher than the initial price.

In total, six companies participated in the auction. LLC «Weis Trade», Kiev became the winner of the auction.

According to the Ukrainian media, Andrey Karimov is the owner of LLC «Weis Trade» and its equity capital is about 229 570 hryvnia. He is also the owner and director of LLC «Horizon-Oil Group» (fuel trade) and co-founder of the «Height» Infrastructural Company.

«JV UKRTVS» was established to provide VVER-1000 reactors at Ukrainian NPPs with nuclear fuel. A three-way partnership consisted of the supply of fuel pellets from Kazakhstan, the production of zirconium rolled products and components for fuel elements in Ukraine and the final assembly of fuel elements in Russia. It was not possible to adjust the production of cassettes. Today, Ukraine buys nuclear fuel from the Russian fuel company «TVEL» and the American company «Westinghouse».

Meanwhile, Rick Perry — the United States Secretary of Energy — intends to visit Ukraine in the near future. It is expected, that during the visit he will bring up a topic of Ukrainian nuclear power plants operation and further cooperation in the field of nuclear fuel procurement.